Promo the Guardians of Terath Series by Zen DiPietro

An earth-like world of high-tech humans faces the reality
that their world is not as safe as they thought it was. Five people are thrown
together to quietly get to the bottom of an unfathomable mana event that must
stay quiet. If the population of Terath becomes aware of the truth, it will
spark a civil war. That war would pit the majority of the population against
the powerful minority with the ability to harness and manipulate mana. The
resulting cataclysm would decimate the population and tear apart the foundation
of society.

The five people chosen for this must reconsider everything they thought they
knew about mana, even as they learn to trust one another’s abilities. They must
embrace everything they never wanted in order to prevent the devastation of
their world. One of them will be forever changed. Love will be denied, badassery
will be unleashed, and Terath will never be the same.

Even success comes at a price.

This book is available at Amazon. 

A new manahi. A new military. A famous bard who suddenly
resurfaces after a decade of hiding.

A lot of changes have taken place on Terath, and an
ecological crisis has raised tensions to the breaking point. Kassimeigh and Arc
must work with Luc and the scientists in the Capital to determine whether the
discovery is a threat to the planet. Each discovery unspools more questions, as
they question the nature of mana and what it means to Terath.

At the same time, they must try to calm an increasingly
nervous population. Will and Izzy offer their help in that regard, but the
newly-formed Guard has never been called into action before.

Meanwhile, Kassimeigh must deal with a shocking change in
her own circumstances, which forces her to rethink her place in the world.

Life, death, mana, and chaos rival one another for
supremacy. How can Kassimeigh help protect the world when she has no idea where
she belongs in it?

When Maureen asked me about the story behind the
Guardians of Terath series, I had to give it some real thought. Having now
written three books, it’s interesting to think back to just before I wrote the
first one.

I began blogging shortly after I started writing, and
both things happened for the same reason. Book publishing follows trends and
unfortunately, the kind of book I like to read can be hard to find.

I like books with female protagonists who aren’t
overwhelmed with concerns for their looks or their relationships. I like female
heroes to be just that. Heroes who happen to be women. I also like male
characters who aren’t smirky, smug jerks. I like worlds without gender
stereotypes and characters who are real people who aren’t afraid to be who they
are.

I also like new ideas. Dystopian stories are very popular
these days because stories of deprivation and struggle create opportunities for
heroes and villains. The end of the world is an inherently dramatic thing. Yet
people are adaptive, inventive creatures. What about the other end of the
spectrum? What if a world were nearly utopian? If environmental stressors like
food and housing weren’t a motivating factor in life? What problems would
people have then? Because people will always have problems, hopes, and dreams.

All that led to the creation of Terath. It’s a world of
abundance and opportunity where gender stereotypes don’t exist. And, oh yes,
these people have their own challenges to overcome. Imagine a world where
hardship was so rare that people were unprepared for it when it came. A world
with no military for protection or high-tech weapons. How would they handle a
threat?

This is the focus of the first book in the series, ‘Seeking
Sorrow’. The second and third books, ‘Facing Fortune’ and ‘Breaking Bard’
(coming early 2016), go on to tell their own individual stories while carrying
through some series-wide story arcs. There may be more yet in the series, if
there’s a demand for them. I’d certainly like to see what else these characters
get up to.

Slowly, there are starting to be more formidable female
heroes. Putting my shoulder behind that movement and pushing is why I started
writing. My blog, too, celebrates this sort of book with recommendations and
interviews. It’s my great hope to write and promote fiction that creates
opportunities. New ideas, new ways of thinking about characters, and representation
of far more diversity in general. After all, it’s fiction. The imagination is
the only limit.